Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch review

Lenovo adds multitouch to its business Ultrabook, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, but it’s far from an essential upgrade

Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Carbon has spent the last few months atop PC Pro’s A-List, and for good reason: it’s the first business Ultrabook worthy of the name, with gorgeous design meshing seamlessly with office-friendly features. Now, however, Lenovo’s added touch to its list of talents.

At first glance, it’s difficult to tell the two models apart. There’s the same silky matte-black finish, and every edge softens into a smooth, gentle curve – it’s just as sleek and smart as ever. Cramming in a touchscreen has swelled the chassis a little, though. Overall thickness has increased from 19mm to 22mm, and weight has increased, too – the X1 Carbon Touch tips the scales at 1.51kg, 151g more than the non-touch model.

The display was one of the strongest features of the X1 Carbon, and the addition of touch doesn’t change that. Its maximum brightness of 309cd/m2 is just about bright enough for outdoor use, and the matte anti-glare finish does a great job of fending off reflections. Contrast remains good, too, with a measured contrast ratio of 583:1, and while colour accuracy has slipped a little, the panel still covers the whole sRGB gamut. The touchscreen layer isn’t completely invisible, however: closer inspection reveals an ever-present grain.

Performance is nigh-on identical. Our model’s Core i5 processor and 180GB SSD made for rapid startup and near-instantaneous resume times, and helped the Lenovo to a result of 0.68 in our Real World Benchmarks. The touchscreen takes its toll on battery life, however: in our light usage tests the X1 Carbon Touch lasted 6hrs 35mins – over an hour short of the standard model.

In terms of usability, though, the X1 Carbon Touch remains one of the best out there. The keyboard, touchpad and trackpoint are all as good as it gets, and the addition of touch does come in handy on occasion. The more we used the Lenovo, the more often we found ourselves taking advantage of the touch features, whether to scroll through our Outlook inbox, scan around documents or to quickly zoom in and out of densely packed spreadsheets.

Lenovo has done a good job of accommodating a touchscreen without sacrificing the best qualities of the X1 Carbon. Ergonomics, screen quality and performance are all more than up to scratch. The glaring question, however, is whether touch is worth paying a premium for on a business laptop. With the standard X1 Carbon delivering better battery life and twice the amount of RAM for over £200 less, we’re not convinced.

Warranty

Warranty

3 yr return to base

Physical specifications

Dimensions

331 x 226 x 22mm (WDH)

Weight

1.510kg

Travelling weight

2.0kg

Processor and memory

Processor

Intel Core i5-3427U

Motherboard chipset

Intel HM77

RAM capacity

4.00GB

Memory type

DDR3

SODIMM sockets free

0

SODIMM sockets total

0

Screen and video

Screen size

14.0in

Resolution screen horizontal

1,600

Resolution screen vertical

900

Resolution

1600 x 900

Graphics chipset

Intel HD Graphics 4000

DisplayPort outputs

1

Drives

Hard disk

SSD

Replacement battery price inc VAT

£0

Networking

802.11a support

yes

802.11b support

yes

802.11g support

yes

802.11 draft-n support

yes

Integrated 3G adapter

yes

Bluetooth support

yes

Other Features

Wireless hardware on/off switch

no

Wireless key-combination switch

yes

3.5mm audio jacks

1

SD card reader

yes

MMC (multimedia card) reader

yes

Pointing device type

Touchpad, trackpoint, touchscreen

Integrated microphone?

yes

Integrated webcam?

yes

Battery and performance tests

Battery life, light use

6hr 35min

Overall Real World Benchmark score

0.68

Responsiveness score

0.80

Media score

0.72

Multitasking score

0.53

Operating system and software

Comments

I think a review like this needs to explain the eye-popping price. It doesn't have a Retina screen, it does have an SSD, but we keep being told that these are now more affordable than ever. I assume it does have the technology to justify the price, but the review doesn't explain that. It just doesn't seem to be competitive with the upscale Macbook Pros without more information. Also I suspect you will never be able to buy it in John Lewis, so who are the main resellers?

>whether touch is worth paying a premium for on a business laptop.And for many people the answer is, of course, "yes". After a few weeks with a Surface Pro used 80% of the time like a laptop, I've actually come to like Windows 8 (even though I don't really see the point of most of the modern apps). I would simply not now buy another laptop without a touchscreen (or potentially a "wave your hands about in the general direction" system that I'd been suitably convinced by). And strongly preferably, a pen.Shame about the RAM and battery life though.

I don't mind paying a bit more and call me mad, but I want to watch Full HD videos which I'd quite like to watch *IN* Full HD.So forget it. I'm not buying a machine with anything less that 1080p resolution.

It all depends on what YOU'RE running! I'm 100%, beyond any doubt, that you can get over 3hrs of battery life.Did you tweak the power settings? Were you at least running on balanced? More information is required instead of blindly bashing the machine.